Latvia: Halal slaughter legalized Sweden gets its halal chicken from
Denmark, now a Latvian company intends to sell Sweden halal beef. ———–
The Latvian parliament recently enacted controversial legislation in
the animal welfare law, which legalizes halal and kosher slaughter. The
meat will be exported to Sweden. With a narrow majority the Latvian
parliament, the Saeima, decided to implement an adaptation of the
Animal Welfare law, which makes it legal to ritually slaughter animals.
This method means that the animal isn’t stunned before its throat is
cut and the animal bleeds to death. About 300 people protested outside
the Saeima with the Animal SOS organization, which thinks the method is
inhumane. In Sweden the method is not allowed, but Vents Armands
Krauklis of the conservative Latvian People’s Party think that
exporting the meat to Sweden can help Latvia’s crisis-hit finances.
“This is necessary when there’s an economic crisis,” said Kraulik, who
had trouble making himself heard during a break, surrounded by the
demonstrators. Krauklis is the one who pushed hardest for the
legislation, which was enacted after only two meetings. In the past
this has only occurred when a quick decision was absolutely essential.
Several demonstrators thought it was peculiar that the legislation was
called for by a private company and not by Muslim or Jewish groups. The
CEO of the company is a party member of Krauklis, and demonstrators
accused the member of corruption. “We think he’s just using the crisis
as an excuse,” said a demonstrator. The organizers Animals SOS,
emphasized that their protest didn’t have racist motives, but only
animal rights. Despite this, there was a poster among the demonstrators
of Latvia squeezed between a Star of David and an Islamic crescent.
“That man is not with us. We tried to get him to go but he refuses. We
are against cruelty to animals, not religion,” said Laura Karnite of
Animals SOS to Swedish newspaper Arbetaren. Source: Tidningen Arbetaren
(Swedish)